Zekriat – Memories
by Mini Goat
Summary: Set at the end of Cold Lazarus Jack goes home to process his experience and Sam pulls the short straw for who has to check on him.


**Zekriat – Memories**

Jack walked through the Stargate with a bemused expression on his face.

"Welcome back SG1" Hammond told him from the Operations room.

Jack nodded absently at him and muttered "yah" before handing his vest and weapons to the armory tech. He walked out of the Gate room without acknowledging anyone else.

Sam, Daniel and Hammond looked at each other in concern.

"I'll mark him as off duty. He's probably going to just go home but you two should decide who's going to go make sure he's ok." George told them.

"Er, yah. Ok." Daniel agreed.

"Yes Sir." Sam told him.

George left the Operations room and Sam and Daniel exchanged looks of concern.

"Do you think he'll be ok driving home alone?" She asked him.

"Yah. Lets give him a little time then one of us can go over and make sure he's ok."

"It should probably be you." She told him. "He knows you better." She reasoned.

"Possibly. I'm not sure I'm the right person right now. I'm still too angry about my own losses and that's not what he's going to need." Daniel admitted.

"Ok. I'll give him an hour and go check on him." Sam told him. He might be right. Jack wouldn't need anger, he'd need comfort. If Daniel was being honest which Sam assumed he was, then he was the wrong person to make sure Jack was ok this time.

She went back to her lab to make sure nothing was running that shouldn't be then called the guard shack to make sure Jack had signed out of the mountain for the day. He had. She went to the locker room to change back to civvies then stopped by Daniel's office before leaving. "He left about fifteen minutes after he got back. It looks like he must have gone right to the locker rooms showered and gone home."

"Yah, hopefully he's there and not at a bar. If he's not home call me and I'll help you track him down. I know most of his haunts now I think."

Sam nodded. "All right. Wish me luck."

"Yah. Hope he's ok." Daniel said thoughtfully.

"Me too." Sam honestly wasn't sure what she was going to do if Jack was not, in fact, ok but she figured she'd cross that bridge when she got to it.

As Sam was leaving she passed Teal'c who noted her civilian clothing. "Are you leaving to see to O'Neill's well being Captain Carter?"

"I am Teal'c." she told him.

"Good." Was all the large man said then continued down the hall. Sam looked after the taciturn Jaffa and wondered if the old saying about still waters had some basis in truth in his case.

* * *

Sam pulled up in front of Jack's house and was relieved to see his truck in the driveway. She sighed and her shoulder slumped. She'd been worried she'd have to search half of Colorado Springs to find him. Sam parked her car next to his truck and headed for the front door. She almost checked out back first but it was chilly and she couldn't see him opting to barbeque something.

He'd told Daniel that he never locked the door if he was home so she let herself in. "Sir?" she said quietly at first. The house was really quiet. If he was asleep she didn't want to wake him up. "Jack?" she said a little louder in case he was just upstairs.

There was no answer. In fact, it didn't sound like he was even in the house. Crap. Where was he she wondered.

She looked out the back doorwall just to make sure he wasn't sitting on the deck then started quietly searching the house calling his name so she wouldn't be greeted with a pistol barrel.

He clearly wasn't down stairs. She decided to try upstairs. He was probably just exhausted and sound asleep in his room. "Jack?" she called softly up the stairs. "If you're indecent now's the time to put on some shorts because I'm coming up."

No answer. She huffed and walked up the stairs. You had better be asleep Jack O'Neill she thought in irritation. I'm not a fan of hide and seek with my CO.

The rooms however were empty including his bedroom that she'd half expected to find him passed out on his bed in exhaustion, snoring away.

She heard a sound from a room she'd checked already and went back to it cautiously. Looking in she noticed a door that lead to his observation deck and sagged in relief. He was probably out there staring up at the clouds freezing his ass off.

She opened the door and scanned the observation deck. He was sitting on one of the wood deck chairs he'd put out there for using his telescope. She couldn't help but feel sympathy for him. He looked so lost. His elbows were on the arm rests, hands limply crossed in front of him as he stared up unseeing at the clouds scuttling slowly overhead.

Not sure what to say she walked out and stood in front of him, her expression soft. "Jack?"

As if he was returning from a long way away he slowly focused his eyes and looked at her. "C'mere" he said softly and when she came close enough to bump his knee with her leg he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back into the chair.

Realizing he apparently just really needed a hug she submitted and wrapped her arms around his waist and tucked her head under his chin.

Jack closed his eyes and clung to her, his nose buried in her tawny hair. Her legs sideways across his lap.

Once he finally felt he had some control of his emotions he began to speak. "The Unity didn't tell me the name of their people. I wish they had. The one who had emulated me… apologized again. He was sorry for having caused so much trouble. He said their people will heal with time but admits it won't be until after we are long gone. Their sense of time is different."

He closed his eyes a moment. "His companion, the one that used your face said she was glad I had so many people who loved me and cared what happened to me."

"Well of course we love you Jack. You're a good man and you'd do anything to keep us alive." Sam told him earnestly as her head popped up to look in his eyes.

For a flash of a second a fleeting emotion he didn't want flickered inside him. He kept his eyes closed until it passed. He opened them to tell her "You guys are good friends. I love you too." And he meant it. He loved all three of them. They were swiftly becoming his family. His anchor. He wondered if that was what the Sam Unity had meant. "Thank you for checking on me Sam." He said and hugged her tighter for a moment before letting her go.

"It's cold up here. Lets go down and make some coffee and you can tell me all the sciency stuff you learned from the Unity before we had to return them to P3X-562." He told her with a grin and patted her leg before letting her up.

"Are you really interested sir?" she asked him incredulously.

"No." he admitted with a grin and a shrug. "But I do like listening to you describe it and it gives us something to do while the coffee brews."

Sam chuckled and shook her head. "Well, their crystal matrix is fascinating sir. Their EM field resonated on a frequency that suggests they have control over it or that it varies dependant on what they are thinking or doing." She said enthusiastically.

Jack nodded thoughtfully and waved his hand for her to continue as they headed down the stairs, more interested than he'd have ever admitted to her. He enjoyed her science a lot more than Daniel's rocks.


End file.
